Randolph Linn, 52, accepted a plea deal in which he pled guilty to all charges in connection to setting a fire in the prayer room at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on Sept. 30. Under the deal, Linn is expected to serve 20 years in prison instead of 40…

“And I was more sad when Judge [Jack] Zouhary asked him that, ‘Do you know any Muslims or do you know what Islam is?’” one mosque member who attended the hearing recalled to WNWO. “And he said, ‘No, I only know what I hear on Fox News and what I hear on radio.’”

23 Responses
to “Less an ideology than something that should be in the DSM-V”

I’m guessing you’ve never been labelled with a ‘mental illness.’ I think it’s about time we lay that particular genre of all-purpose retorts to rest — one instance at a time, one person at a time, day by day, from now on. I’m ready to start doing my part. How ’bout you?

Good morning, pups. Today we have Brooks and Krugman. Oh gawd… Bobo has extruded a thing called “Strangers in the Night” in which he posits that if the two parties just knew a little more about each other we might have a deal on the “fiscal cliff” already. He reads Boehner’s and the President’s minds, and also assures us that even though the Republicans “can do big things” next year. Desperation isn’t a pretty thing to watch… Prof. Krugman, in “Playing Taxes Hold ‘Em,” says for a change, progressives can give thanks to the G.O.P. crazies this year.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got corned beef hash with poached eggs this morning. I’m late today — been battling ‘puter gremlins, but I think I have them cowed for now. Off to do morning things and get more tea. Have a great day.

The problem is that the parties know each other too well. And for once I agree with Krugman, we owe the Tea Crazies a thanks. Boehner couldn’t even bring his turkey plan to the floor and retreated without a vote.

Problem with Krugman is he’s been right since the early w admin, when he said wars off budget aren’t free, and the housing debacle was going to come no matter what the financial ‘experts’ were promising.

Represent! I as well, (multiple ones in fact). Mr./Ms. dkmnow is suffering from Butthurt by proxy, very similar to Münchausen’s by proxy except that Münchausen’s involves actually seeing a health professional.

Decades ago, homosexuality was officially recognized as a mental illness. If it was a real illness then, why isn’t it an illness today? Likewise, Gender Identity Disorder has finally been removed from the upcoming DSM-5. Now, this will create significant funding problems for a large number of very vulnerable people, but at the same time, it will help to reduce the stigma that society has long heaped upon transgendered persons. But the question remains: Is GID a Real Mental Illness, or isn’t it? And this is hardly an uncommon question to ask about DSM-defined conditions. Virtually anyone who has studied the process of how DSM diagnoses are derived can tell you that such conundrums abound in connection with virtually every DSM label.

But this is peripheral to my point. I’ll put it another way. Is it ethical to condone and participate in a popular cultural behavior that entails using people who have been labeled with “mental illnesses” — be they real, imagined, or falsely assigned — by equating them with any or all of the biggest a$$holes in our vaunted “normal” society? Is this not an ill-considered and casually dismissive way of exacerbating the stigma already heaped upon those who suffer from mental illnesses?

Not clear enough? Okay. How about when several million of society’s least criminal, most law-abiding, and most uniquely vulnerable citizens suddenly find they are being categorically equated with mass-murderers by tens of millions of others, and, in addition to their pre-existing disadvantages, are now being routinely targeted with a terrifying escalation of slander/libel, discrimination, harassment, assault, and worse?

Or is the casual promotion of stigma and the sustaining of popular biases against any & all labelled “mentally ill” not really a Real™ problem? Perhaps you’ve gotten all comfy with the notion that it’s not your problem. I would hope that the gratuitously predatory media-driven fallout from the Sandy Hook incident might have shown you otherwise by now. “First they came for the communists…”

While you’re busy not standing out, one group is standing up. But after they’ve rounded up all the autistics, who will be left to stand up for you?

Considering how little basis you had for judging my position, I congratulate you on your Omniscience. Was that given unto you by God, Himself, or was it among the Normal Superpowerz restored to you by the Infinite Benevolence of the clinical psych professions?

Please read my response to EvilDrPuma — and in the future, please consider the potential benefits of actually having some basis in fact before presuming to represent another person’s position.

The press passes are distributed by the White House Correspondents Assn., not the Executive branch. These are the same clowns that put FOX in the front row when Helen Thomas got the boot. The same thing happens in the Capitol, and any three organizations can team up to get any other news operation banned. FOX, Al Jazeera and one other company got Bill Press banned from the Capitol Press Corps because he was “too liberal”, so Bernie Sanders “hired” Bill Press as an unpaid intern, so he could go anywhere he wants to within the Capitol. Sneaky, but it works.